Neil Riser turns back on constituents in land use dispute; accepts beaucoup PAC contributions for state campaigns

The election in the hotly contested 5th District congressional race between State Sen. Neil Riser and Vance McAllister is less than 36 hours away and as Riser ramps up his negative campaigning, LouisianaVoice has come up with a bit more history on Riser the public servant.

We have already seen how he loves to spend campaign funds for personal expenses but his betrayal of landowners in his district and a list of campaign contributors to his previous state senate campaigns reveals a lot about Riser the man.

Less than a year ago, a group of unhappy landowners approached State Sen. Neil Riser (R-Columbia) for assistance with a problem involving the fencing of 55,000 acres of land in the parishes of Winn, LaSalle and Caldwell.

The eight-foot fence, the landowners complained, essentially barred them of their hunting rights because an obscure law making it illegal to hunt on any land area of less than 300 acres that is surrounded by a game fence. The fence erected by former Wildlife and Fisheries Commission Chairman Bill Busbice surrounds the landowner’s homes and provides only ingress and egress to their property. They also claim that the local eco system has been damaged.

The land purchase and fence erection were financed by an $87.86 million federal grant contained in former Gov. Mike Foster’s executive budget during his final year in office

“We contacted Neil Riser to see if there was anything that could be done,” said Gary Hatten of Olla. He said Riser researched and printed a number of laws he told them Busbice had violated and promised to help. “After a while, he (Riser) stopped taking our calls and no longer returned our calls.”

Also kicking in were such noteworthy patrons as Bobby Jindal (oh, wow, what a coincidence—the man who pulled all the strings, a maneuver intended to allow Riser to inherit Rodney Alexander’s old job until McAllister threw a monkey wrench into the works), Rodney Alexander (oh, wow again), Bill Cassidy, Jimmy Faircloth (starting to sound like a modern day version of the Good Ol’ Boys’ Club), PHRMA, Pfizer, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (can you say “fracking”?), Corrections Corp. of America (thar’s money in them thar private prisons), Check Into Cash of Louisiana, Inc. and Advance America (think backbreaking interest payday loans), and the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Alliance (you know, that outfit that 1) is prohibited by law from contributing to political campaigns because it is a public, non-profit organization even though it also gave Jindal $11,000, and 2) had its former president sentenced to 46 months in prison for rigging an association election).

The only question left unanswered is whether Riser, with his NRA membership in hand, has been granted hunting privileges on that 55,000-acre game preserve by Busbice for all that assistance he gave the disgruntled adjacent landowners.

Riser’s entire campaign has been based on what he will OPPOSE if elected and not one single positive action he would take to make America a better place. So I’ll just follow his lead and make my very first act when I enter the voting booth one to OPPOSE Riser getting elected in the first place. Quid Pro Quo.

To think, I am back in my 5th Congressional District (Norwood) and have no representation again. I moved from Baton Rouge, where Hopalong Cassidy and other Jindalite idiots do not understand that a democracy means once elected you must represent everyone in your district, not just Jindalites. I received all of Risers expensive mailouts and have been flooded with robocalls from the NRA. I will never give up, I will fight ignorance and prejudice as long as I can breathe and thanks for giving me a lot of new targets. ron thompson

Wow! It just never ends!! Our political system is a joke. No wonder the U.S. is viewed with such vehement contempt. All of this info should stream (via information technology) into each candidate’s official political profile for all the world to see and not left up to the Tom Aswells of the world to bring the truth to light. Bless you sir, for your courage, strength, and tenacity in exposing these charlatans.

If you live in the 5th district be sure to vote today. It’s very important and we need to prove some people are wrong, including those predicting a light turnout. The machine believes it has stacked the deck. Let’s make them reshuffle.

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